


Purple Ops

by MegaFreeman



Series: Brothers-in-Arms (NOT CANON) [2]
Category: Saints Row
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Canon, Brothers-in-Arms Universe, Canon Rewrite, Featuring Special Guest Shaundi!, Gen, I don't proof read worth shit, Pre-Canon, Retcon Timeline
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-28
Updated: 2020-05-17
Packaged: 2021-02-18 08:02:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21591166
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MegaFreeman/pseuds/MegaFreeman
Summary: Saints Row IV re-imagined AUAfter the ending of Saints Row: The Third, and Boss choosing to save Shaundi instead of tying lose ends, he got an incredible idea on how he could improve the Saints to actually function better this time, as well to tie down the lose ends.Introductory fic to the "Purple Ops" series. Follow the story of Ryan Watson, fourth Boss of the Third Street Saints, as he reforms the gang to fit much better with his own world views; opposite of the street gang direction from the previous Bosses.
Series: Brothers-in-Arms (NOT CANON) [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2091591
Kudos: 8





	1. Goodbye, Steelport!

**Author's Note:**

> THIS FIC ISN'T CANON ANYMORE, THE CHARACTER HAVE SINCE BEEN REPURPOUSED AND NONE OF THIS IS VALID ANYMORE.
> 
> However, I enjoy this story and will keep it as a one off spin off.
> 
> QUICK RECAP: Canonically, the Boss of the Saints is [Vincent Rose](https://drive.google.com/open?id=1hqgMO7NBNnHNxucaSHtU5Q-qhECbDS8A), Ryan's ex-boyfriend, for whom Ryan left the police force to be with. Unfortunately, he dies at the end of Saints Row 2, when Ultor corners him and Julius during their confrontation. After his death, [Salma Colinsworth](https://drive.google.com/open?id=1YgCSV5SPlURhclrxMpcDymOguGchmJqB) took over the gang, and due to her mistrust of the former officer, gave her brother, [Dawson](https://drive.google.com/open?id=13jyYZ5ArneTx_--kcFr0aY3S0n9QdUuB), a higher rank. She had her own adventures leading the Saints (to be written).  
> However, when the Morning Star kill Johnny and Salma on the cargo plane, instead of Dawson, [Ryan Watson](https://drive.google.com/open?id=19cNO39XHL7VJICrA3kqXUH_HAhkBDBiU) took over the gang and lead them in a war against the Syndicate. This fic takes place directly after the ending of The Three Way mission.

Well, huh, so this is it? After two months of fighting we all made it through, alive and well. From European assholes and glorified pimps, through emo hackers and steroid-pumped wrestlers, all the way to a fuckin’ task force with a sole purpose to fight against gang activity with their space-age shit… It has been a pretty rough couple of weeks.

Now, it was time to leave this shithole of a city and go home to Stilwater. It was strange to for once be considered a hero by everyone after saving the monument dedicated to the Steelport’s founder, Joe Magarac. Maybe it was finally time for Saints to become something else? Retire this old, patched up pimp cane and do something along the lines what the original Third Street Saints stood for, and not greed powered terrorist. Tickets for the next flight back to the Stilwater have already been booked, is it time to disband the game? Or maybe give it a new purpose it at least?

The first next flight to Stilwater is at 4 in the morning, which means, alongside the delays, they’d be in Stilwater by 8am. Getting through security would take 2 minutes thanks to their dedication to the job, and about 20 minutes’ drive to the home, a 10 minute warm shower to take off the stench of Steelport off his skin and several more minutes to unpack and get cozy. That would be 10 a.m. is a perfect time for a meeting.

Ryan opened his contacts tab, and started looking for the right contact. He smiled, looking at all the new numbers he got in Steelport. Angel, Zimos, Kinzie; God is he ever again going to even dial one of these numbers? Finally, after scrolling down through most of the list, he found the contact he was looking for; Troy Bradshaw, he pressed ‘Dial’. “ _Hey Chief, long time no see… I am doing good, what about you?_ ” Ryan started off with some small catching up chatter, after all, that was his former boss he was about to ask the favor of. “ _Look, Chief, I had this idea that I wanted to run by you, nothing illegal. Would you be free for a meeting tomorrow at 10 a.m.?”_

The meeting was set, all that’s left now is to say good-bye to the Steelport crew and start packing for the trip back to Stilwater, but knowing the crew, it won’t be that simple. Pierce would definitely want a good-bye party organized in the penthouse, so it would seem he won’t be getting the 6-hour beauty sleep. But let’s face it, when was the last time he did have a peaceful 6 hours of undisturbed sleep. It seems like again, it all falls in Shaundi’s hands and she’ll be left again waking them all up at 3:30 in the morning, if they even get any sleep.

Back at the penthouse, some of the members have already started partying, taking shots and playing Beer Pong. The Boss wasn’t really in the partying mood after all the shit that went down in the city, but what the hell, not everyone is like him and most of these kids will really benefit from a small celebration after such a huge battle today. Most of them are lucky that they get to see a sunset tonight which was a milestone.

Pierce has started doing some real great work on setting up for this party. He really got a hang of this whole organizing thing he had going in the recent few years, which filled Ryan with pride. Booze was there, hard liquor was ready, best drugs in the city got put aside for it and even a few of the prettier strippers in the city. Who knows, maybe this time Ryan won’t be going directly to bed after his speech?

“Boss, you comin’ or what?”  
“Yeah Pierce, I am, I am” He put on his party shirt, which was really only thinner than his regular sweater he’d wear. Still depressingly black, he doesn’t own a lot of shirts in color, he didn’t feel like wearing anything flashy.

Ryan walked out of his room in the penthouse onto the balcony of crib. And he leaned onto the fence, standing in a way to protect people from falling off. As he did, all the music started getting quieter, and so did the chatters from all the guests at the party. They stopped what they were doing, and out of the sudden all the eyes were focused on Ryan, waiting for him to speak.

“Well, Saints, after two months, we finally made it.” Ryan began his speech “We lost our best friend, Gat, and after two months of hard work from everyone in this room, we made those motherfuckers that killed him pay for what they did. And now, their precious little palace is ours.” The crowd of Saints cheered, a lot of ‘fuck yeah!’, and ‘whoo!’ were heard from the first floor. The Boss raised his arm, as the indication that he wasn’t finished yet with the speech. “Tonight, let’s enjoy ourselves; a celebration to our victory. This our city now,” He paused, then smirked “We do whatever the fuck we wanna do.” Ryan said, and the crowd started cheering, with a lot of whistles coming from individuals. This was the moment of pride; an accomplishment. Johnny Gat didn’t come back, but at least he could rest in peace knowing that his friends avenged him.

After the speech was done, Pierce handed a glass of rum, one ice, to the leader of the Saints, just the way he liked it “Nice speech, Boss. Here yo’ go.” Pierce said and smiled at him, to which Ryan took gladly and replied: “Thank you, Pierce. You did good” That was all Pierce wanted to hear Boss say, he likes it when he is appreciated for his hard work. Ryan patted Pierce’s shoulder, and continued to walk right past him and head towards the bar. He took a sip of the drink pierce handed. He felt a burning sweetness on his tongue from it. Perfect, just the way he likes it. When he reached the bar, he saw Shaundi sitting there, all alone.

Ryan sat down next to Shaundi and spoke to the bartender “One Rutherford Beer, cold.” As the bartender turned, he turned his head to Shaundi and talked to so. “We did it, we avenged Gat.” Shaundi was however sorrow, she felt like the Saints did not quite accomplish the mission like they should have. Killbane escaped from the city, he’s still alive somewhere out there, and same goes for Cyrus Temple. He’s just and spoiled and dirty player as Killbane is, and she believe they shouldn’t be partying, but hunting them down.  
“You should’ve gone after Killbane…” She said, in a cold, dead tone.  
“Maybe…” Ryan replied, then paused to thank the bartender for bringing him the beer. “But I didn’t.” He took the sip of his beer “And you know why? I lost Vince several years ago… A couple months ago, Johnny died too. I wasn’t going to let that whore from STAG take you too.”  
“But now, Johnny can’t rest yet, and we’re throwing another fuckin’ party.”  
“I know, but our work here is done. Killbane and Cyrus ran away, there’s no point in staying here anymore.” He paused, took another sip from the beer and Shaundi looked at him, not feeling like partying “You know how I hate parties; you remember that from back in the day. The only reason I agreed to this is to give the kids some teambuilding and motivation. We’ll forget about them anyway if they don’t come back with us-”  
“But we shouldn’t do that, we should group up and go after those two assholes.”  
“Shaundi…” Ryan stopped her, looked her in her brown eyes and put his arm on top of her shoulder “Do you trust me?”  
“I- What?”  
“Do you trust me?”  
“I do, Boss… That’s why I am here.”  
“Well, I kind of got a big plan on how we’re gonna hunt down and put a bullet in both of their skulls.”  
“Oh? And how do you mean to do that? By letting the crew party them to death?” Shaundi said with a hint of sarcasm in her voice.  
Ryan smiled, and then replied “I have still to figure out few logistics. But trust me, you’ll love it? We’ll talk more about it in Stilwater?”  
“Fine. More about it in Stilwater.” Shaundi took a shot of her tequila. “But you know, I still won’t rest until Killbane pays for running Johnny’s funeral. Not until his memory is honored.”  
Ryan paused for a second, looking back at his two drinks; a glass of rum, his favorite, and a bottle of cold Rutherford brand beer. “Did I ever tell you what I do to honor Vincent’s memory?”  
“What?”  
“You see, every time I accomplish something, mostly in the name of the gang, or something I know he’d be proud of, I go into a bar, and have his favorite drink along mine.” He played with the label of the beer bottle, as he looked at it fondly and told the story “In a way, it reminds how proud he’d be of me right now. It reminds me of the good old days when we would chat and go out on a beer after a stressful day, or an accomplishment. It feels like his spirit is still with me, being my guardian angel” He finished it up, and looked back into Shaundi. “Anyway, I think you should try this with Gat.”  
“Yeah, that kinda sounds stupid.”  
“Just try it, it will make you feel a bit better. Maybe say something you didn’t get to say to him before he left us?”  
She sighed and rolled her eyes “Fiiine.” Shaundi signaled the bartender “Hey, could you get me one Rutherford beer please? Room temperature.” Gat always loved his beer at the room temperature. When the bartender brought her the she raised the bottle and looked at it. Her eyes started getting teary.  
“Johnny… Hey… I am sorry I was there looking behind your back. I should’ve been there, protecting you, making sure Loren died on that plane. I probably disappointed you but…” A single tear dropped from her eye “This is stupid…”  
“No, no!” Ryan replied “Keep going, you were doing great!”  
She wiped the tear with her wrist, and with a half-broken voice, she continued “I am sorry I disappointed you. If I maybe took your word that I won’t always have a gun with me more seriously, maybe you would’ve made it out alive…” She stopped, and tried to calm those tears down. After around 15 seconds of silence, “I really wish you were here right now, just to have a beer with me, call me kid, make a joke at my expense, have me say fuck you to it… I miss you, and I love you. I’d do anything to have you actually drink beer with me right now…”  
“Now, take a sip” Ryan interrupted, he felt like it was time for to wrap it up, before declaring it useless.  
She followed as instructed, she closed her eye, and remembered Gat. Not for his faith, like she couldn’t stop thinking for two months already, but from all their fond moments between the last few years. Their first beer together, when he hit that hobo while she was high, him teaching her self-defense takedown… All those wonderful memories just came back to her. It was truly a wonderful moment, finally, Gat wasn’t a victim in her mind, he was a friend she’ll always have fond memories of.  
She swallowed, and opened her eyes. With a calm, yet quiet voice, she said “Wow… I can’t believe that actually worked.” She has a soft smile on her face “Thank you, Ryan.”  
Ryan got up from his chair, and smiled again, he rubbed her shoulder soft with his palm “You’re welcome, Shaundi. I am glad I could help.” He patted it twice “Have fun tonight”, and left to see if any other lost soul needs a chat in this crib.

He needed the full strength and focus of his team if he was going to pull his plan off. He has to convince Troy it’s going to work with it. Saints are powerful, but they aren’t stable. Nobody will respect them like that, no matter how Ryan felt about them. He needed powerful warriors, and not people that hate themselves and regret everything. He needs the best of the best.


	2. It's All In The Presentation

The Boss spent most of the flight asleep on the plane. After all, helping people all night deal with their emotions is a draining work. Finally, when they landed, everything went according to the original plan; 10 minutes through the process, grab the delivered car from one of the wannabe gangbangers, Boss made sure he left him a small tip, got to show the small fellas some appreciation too. After all, they’re ready to die for Ryan and his cause, and he appreciates that more than anyone.

As Ryan reached his apartment complex located in the Saint’s Row district, he started thinking of what he should say. He never was extremely good with the words; he was more of the brawl type of guy. Which meant the idea that soon he’ll have to present something new that could potentially help people made him feel anxious. He’ll have to take a short break as soon as he got inside the apartment to relax. He wasn’t a weed type of guy because it made him feel nauseous, however, the green tea always worked the trick.

Boss parked his car in the spot outside, and took his carry-on bag from the passenger seat. He got out of the car and started walking towards the entrance. He pulled out a magnetic key card and pressed it against the apartment buzzer. The door unlocked and Ryan walked inside and up to the 3rd floor, where his unit is located. He always preferred using the stairs over elevator, it was a good cardio workout, and considering how busy he was in last few years, especially with his depression and lack of will to work for anything. He started walking up them, taking it step by step, while thinking to himself how glad he is to be back home.

It’s been only two years since he lost Vince, his best friend; a soulmate. It was all because he wasn’t able to protect him, he should’ve known Ultor would come after them after watching them rebuild the city so closely. Ryan should’ve warned them all, Ryan should’ve warned _him_. He died because he wasn’t there to help, because he failed him once again, and now, Gat suffered the same fate. _I am a failure_. Ryan thought to himself, as he lost more faith in his ability to protect the others. When he was down, both Gat and Vince both did everything to make sure he comes back alive. If it was him in their shoes, they would’ve gone after him; they would have sacrificed their own well-being for my own safety. _I failed them, and who knows how many more of them I’ll fail. I almost failed Shaundi back in Steelport_.

As he reached the third floor, Ryan unlocked the door to my apartment and walked inside of it. He could feel the cold loneliness that haunts it as soon as he walked inside. It was shallow, boring; it didn’t have anything that made it feel warm and homey. The Boss still didn’t get a chance to decorate it, he just didn’t feel like it ever since he bought the apartment. What’s the point of decorating a place you’ll only sleep into, especially when you don’t even have anyone to share it with. Ryan dropped his carry-on on the floor next to the coat hanger, then hung his coat on that same hanger. He went straight into the kitchen, and put the water inside his tea maker. He turned the maker on and walked into the bathroom to wash himself. Ryan turned on the shower, and as the water dropped from the faucet to the ground, it started to make a cloud of steam. It was time to take off the stench of Steelport off of him, so he slowly started stripping off. From first taking his sweater off and throwing it into the laundry bin, to shoes and socks next, after which the pants followed and they too came off. Lastly, but certainly not least, his underwear went off and into the laundry bin they too went. Finally, he entered the shower cabin. As the hot water touched his skin, Ryan released a big breath of relief from his lungs. It dropped on top of his head and shoulders and was streaming down his entire body. It relieved him of stress; freed him from the clutches of anxiety. The Boss started taking deep breaths as his eyes were closed, _breathe in_ … _breathe out…_ And he repeated this process. After about two minutes of relaxing breathing in the shower, it was time to soap up. Ryan took in 3-in-1 body wash and applied it to his hand. He started with rubbing it on his hair first, and the slowly proceeded down his body; just like the water went when he entered the shower. After rubbing every part of his body carefully, including his private parts, he washed it all off with the running water.

Ryan grabbed the towel off its hanger and wiped his face. He got out of the shower, as he was drying up the rest of his body, and he still didn’t stop even as he was walking to the mirror. He dropped the towel in the laundry basket and looked at himself in the mirror. He saw a broken man in it; a man controlled by his sorrows. Maybe it was finally time for change? Ryan looked around his bathroom, when his eyes finally found it; shaving foam. It was high time Ryan shaved off the mustache from his face. He applied the foam above his lip, just enough to cover the entire mustache. The extra foam he didn’t use that stayed on his hand, he wiped off the towel that was peeking out of the laundry bin. The Boss took the razor and looked directly at its sharp edges. “Well, time for a new beginning” He said, and pulled the first slide of the mustache. He washed off what was left on the razor in the running water, and then took another slide. Ryan repeated this until there was nothing left. His hand reached out for the towel next to his sink, the one he used for face, as he was putting down his razor, and used it to wipe his face. After which, he applied an aftershave under his nose. The scent was really strong, especially when applied right under the nose.

Leaving the bathroom in nothing but his flip-flops on, he finally felt a little bit relaxed about the entire situation. _Maybe I was worrying too much about nothing, I’ll just speak from my heart, and he’ll love what I had in store_. Thought Ryan as he poured his tea into a mug and looked up to the clock. 9:45 a.m. There’s still 15 minutes left to get to the police station. He wasn’t worried he’d be late, after all, it was a 5-minute drive to the station. So, he continued sipping his hot tea, while standing bare-assed in his apartment loft. It might be a smart decision that he starts dressing soon.

The Boss carried his mug into the bedroom, and opened up his closet, all while slowly sipping it. He looked through the options he has to wear inside his closet and was slowly picking it piece by piece. Looking through the shirts, he knew he had to dress a bit more appropriately, he can’t go with a sweater, it doesn’t feel that professional, and he wanted to make an impression he was real and actually passionate about the topic at hand. So, he picked it; the best long-sleeved dress shirt in his closet. It was purple, and made out of silk, it would really leave a good impression that he tried to look good for the meeting. Of course, with a perfect shirt, there has to be a perfect pair of pants to go along with, and Ryan had just the specific pair in mind. He picked the ones from the bottom of the big pile of pants, they were custom tailored just for him, the ones Pierce convinced him to get when he became the face of the Saints. They were black and went almost perfectly together with his shirt. Ryan laid both the shirt and the pants on his bed, took a sip of his tea, left it on the night table, and then picked a random pair of socks, undershirt and of course, underwear from his closet. That really didn’t matter to him, after all it wasn’t what Troy would be seeing during their discussion.

The Boss started dressing himself by putting all the clothing on, in the opposite order he took it off. First starting with the underwear, he made sure that his rooster was comfortably placed in them, then he put on the undershirt, followed by the regular shirt, which as soon as he put on, started to button it by starting from the bottom, and going all the way up. After the shirt was on, he needed something to tuck it in, so he started pulling his pants up, zipping them, and then buttoning. Of course, they were perfectly fitted for his waist that he didn’t need to use a belt. Finally, he sat down on the bed, rolled on the socks and then put on the reserve pair of dress shoes he kept in a box under his bed. Ryan always kept one reserve pair, since for him, shoes are something that constantly breaks down.

He got up from his bed, all cleaned up and tightly dressed, 10 more minutes left until he’s supposed to be there. However, Ryan felt like something was missing… At first he couldn't exactly place his finger on what, but then it hit him. It’s about time he used a perfume. He walked back to his nightstand and opened the first drawer on it. There stood a bottle of perfume, never used. Shaundi got it for him for his birthday some time ago, but he hasn’t really felt like ever wearing it. Maybe it’s time he did it now, for good luck’s sake. He pulled out the bottle and sprayed it on both sides of his neck. It smelled like a Zen garden, simply beautiful. Shaundi always knew how to pick a scent on some deeper, spiritual level.

He left his apartment, and started heading down the stairs. Some would say he’s dressed like a million bucks. Boss left the building and entered his car again, igniting the engine, he headed towards the police station with only 7 minutes left. When he arrived there, it was 2 minutes, perfectly enough to check out. Of course, he didn’t have any guns or weapons on him, so it won’t take him long to get inside. He walked into the building and went to the receptionist. Ryan could see it on her face that she wasn’t the most comfortable with him present in the building.

“Hi, I have an appointment with Chief at 10 a.m.? Probably under the name Ryan Watson?” He said to the receptionist. As she heard his request, she, in almost unnatural workaholic manner, transformed from worried to checking out the schedule.  
“It all clears out, you can go.” The receptionist told him.

Everything else was a breeze. Security didn’t beep at all, because like mentioned before, he didn’t carry any arms inside with him. As soon as he finished with security, he went upstairs to the detective’s quarters where Chief’s office was located, right past all the cubicles. As Ryan went by the cubicles, he read all the names at their entrances. Vasquez, Bailey, Flynt, Carson, Castilla… These were all the names of the people in his ranks when he was a beat cop. He thought how left this part of his life to be a gangbanger. How he truly wasted his true potential.

After passing through them all, he finally found himself at the front door of Troy’s office. It was exactly 10 a.m., he didn’t have any time left to think outside the door, or he’d be late. At this point, it’s now or never. He took a deep breath and knocked on the door, after which, he entered the office.

“Ah there you are, Ryan…” Troy said as he looked up from the pile of papers on his front desk. Even with all this work in front of him, he still managed to make time to hear Ryan’s request, which showed how much Troy still respected his former officer. He smiled at Ryan “I see you’ve got a new look? Guess, I’m the machoman now.” He chuckled and then before giving Ryan a chance to reply to that, he continued talking “Sit down. What is it that you wanted to talk to me about?” Chief took a drag of his cigarette.  
Ryan sat as he was ordered by Troy, and just as he was about to say anything, he got cut off by his own thought, and just stared for a brief second at a figure he one time ago considered like an older brother, and that feeling still didn’t go away from him. Boss smirked at him and said, with a voice that almost broke into tears “It’s good to see you again, Chief.”  
“I told you not to call me that.” He said, taking another drag. “It’s good to see you too, Ryan.” He paused “Now, I got a lot of work, what did you want to discuss about?”


	3. Support & Sustain

Troy looked Ryan after hearing his crazy idea, the numbness of his face suggested a genuine confusion, rather than the approval that Ryan had come to expect. The Chief of Police got off his chair and turned his back towards his former officer. He stood like that for a second or two, thinking for himself about this crazy idea that was just proposed.

Finally, he spoke to Ryan after a short break, he turned his head briefly towards former officer. “I thought the department was corrupt, and that only an illegal street gang can solve our problem.” A hint of disbelief was heard in Troy’s voice.

However, 4 years have passed since Ryan said that, and his opinion on the matter changed. He is convinced that this plan of his is flawless. “Troy, I don’t know what you don’t think will work here.” He started explaining to the Chief “There is so much violence in the world, and Saints having a record label and some shitty movie won’t do anything to change that.” He paused for a moment, recollecting his thoughts, with a small grin forming on his face. “That’s why we need a special task force. I’m saying we take the ‘street hardened’ criminals, motivated to keep their city safe, and turn them into a special crime fighting task force that will deal with high level criminals.” He started numbering the potential reasons, while using his fingers “Counter terrorism, human trafficking, high profile assassins and criminals, smugglers… That’s already 5 reasons out of top of my head. You can’t admit that getting rid of these crimes while keep the streets safe isn’t a good thing?”

Troy sighed. He turned back and sat back down onto his chair. “You know shit like this needs to be approved by the local government. I can’t sign you up on that personally, it’s above my paycheck.”

“Please, Troy. You know why I came to you. You were once my brother,” It wasn’t something Ryan referred to Troy as in his face in some pretty long time, and once they were inseparable. “and I know you can have a proper input on something like this.” He argued to Troy “I have Ultor in my pockets, you know that Governor Daniels will sign up on anything if Ultor pays her enough money.” This is where Ryan had to pause for a second, before he goes on his plan how will he win the politicians “I respect your opinion, and I want you to oversee the task force… Well, I’ll lead it, but you oversee me.”

The Chief of Police hummed as he stared into the distance, with a blank expression. During this time, Ryan played with his fingers, nervously overthinking what might come out from this. Shortly after, Troy had his answer. “Alright, if you say you got this, I trust you. But there is still one problem… Won’t the Saints protest this?”

Ryan stopped for a second, for this was the only thing he didn’t think about it and could actually backfire. “Well, I trust them they wouldn’t.” There was no evidence against him on this claim, other than cop hating philosophy in the gang itself. “Look, Shaundi wants to avenge Gat, Pierce is fine with whatever, and Salma’s brother, Dawson, is married to a fire fighter so-“

“MARRIED?!” Troy rudely interrupted Ryan during his talk.

“Well, engaged. He popped the question and got a yes. It’s not important right now.” He replied with no enthusiasm at all for this story, and was frankly, annoyed about the interruption. But it was Troy’s right to know, so he couldn’t get mad at him.

“Sorry, continue.”

“Like I was going to say, the only people who might’ve been against this are Vincent, Salma and Johnny. And frankly, they all died. Maybe our way was wrong to begin with.”

“You got me there.” Troy replied, taking the last drag of his cigarette and putting it in the ashtray on his desk. “Yea, I am okay with Saints merging under SPD to serve as a special investigation task force, but explain to me how you are going to convince state officials to grand you immunity and a way to go above the law and operate without the warrant?” The Chief of Police asked his once underling. Ryan was always ambitious with these types of things, but he never thought about them too much. Some would call it ‘overly ambitious’.

“Trust me, Troy, I got it.” Ryan said as he got up from his chair and shook hands with Troy. “I guess we’ll be seeing more of each other from now on.”

“Looking it forward to that.” Troy got up from his chair too to shake Ryan’s hand, and after that was done, decided to walk him out of his office too.

On the way out, with a small (I guess grin?) on his face that some crazy scheme he made up in 2 hours could actually work. As he left the office, he turned back to Troy one last time and look at him “Actually, would you like to grab lunch later and catch up? I’m sure you’d like to hear great much about what’s been happening. The engagement and all…”

Troy smiled at Ryan “Sure, 2 o’clock sounds good to you?”

“It’s perfect. See you in 4 hours then.” The former police officer said goodbye to his friend one last time for now, and left the station.

On the walk to his car, he pulled out his phone and typed out a message to Shaundi, Pierce and Dawson, calling an emergency meeting at the base in two days. And after that one, another mass message, but this time to the Steelport crew, Viola, Oleg, Angel and Kinzie, asking them to come to Stilwater in two days for that same crew meeting.

They were still part of the gang, they just stayed back in Steelport to run the Saints operations there, and keep Syndicate under the control of the Third Street Saints; all controlled by Viola DeWynter.

With those two messages done and meeting going quite smoothly. The next stop is making those executives at Ultor fund all this, and get the Governor Daniels on his side.

Operation Purple Ops will rise from the ground, whatever it takes. They’ll get the proper training, the proper funding and anything else they need, and hunt down any bastard making this world a worse place. More importantly, track down those bastards that killed his friends.

* * *

The two days finally passed, and Ultor has given Ryan all green lights for this project. Ryan had both the political and technical support provided to him by Ultor; and in exchange? Ultor gets all the good PR that comes from being the leading anti-terrorism unit in the entire state of Michigan. It was all finally coming together for him. He found a way he wants to lead this marry band of misfits to be something more. Now, all that was left for Ryan was to convince rest of the Saints to sign up for his A-Team Force.

It was 11:56 AM, the Saints meeting was to start exactly at noon. When Ultor rebuilt the entire Shivington District, they also took liberty to reconstruct the Saints Headquarters, or as the Saints would usually refer to it, The Purgatory. Ultor put a lot of attention to detail when it came to building, because not only did they fix the remains of the old Church, but also expanded it over a few floors, transforming it into a real night club, both for public and a private, for Saints members only. The Saints Quarters had a lot of stuff that the lieutenants, as well as regular street level gangsters, tended to use, such as an armory, a private range, a bar, recreational gym and even included private quarters for lieutenants. Most of the lieutenants never used any of the given private rooms because they could afford their own, much better places, but it was a good place that the higher ranking Saints would often end up using for the hook-ups and similar stuff for which they needed privacy. However, after all these amazing things the Ultor Corporation implemented into the Purgatory, the thing they ended up using the most was their private conference room, which was used for lieutenant meetings. Ryan planned to use that conference room to hold a small presentation he prepared for this. Obviously, he expected to be met with criticism. Gang leaders don’t easily turn to being pop celebrities

Meanwhile, Dawson just managed to visit the Headquarters for the first time since they came back from Steelport. He couldn’t bring himself to visit it ever since his sister passed away. It brings back so many sad memories to Dawson, he still wasn’t ready to say goodbye to Salma. Part of him still thought that he should’ve tried moving on though, so he came to the meeting earlier, and decided to visit her room at the Purgatory.

When he first entered the room, Dawson was met with a small amount of pressure on his chest. He was anxious. Her room wasn’t anything special like some other Saints had; it was messy and didn’t have that many decorations. In the corner of the room, there stood one medium dresser. Every room in the headquarters came with one of these, same model even. Salma, being the slob that she is, didn’t bother changing hers. The dresser has some of her trademarks too, such as stains on top of it and some scratches that resembled those of a knife on the sides of it. A few decorations were present on top of it, and it didn’t seem like much; it looked more like a pile of dirty clothes and some ammo shells.

Something on it caught Dawson’s eye. It was a picture frame, something that was very unlikely for Salma to have. He approached the dressed and picked up the framed picture to get a better look at it. Once he did, after a minute of looking at it, his eyes have started tearing up. It wasn’t any picture in it, but a picture of Salma and Dawson, together as brother and sister. Looking at it warmed Dawson’s heart, he felt a small amount of relief in his chest. He always had a feeling that Salma loved him, however, she was rather a really cold person and would never voice that. She never said words like ’I love you’, or ’thank you’, and despite that, he still believed she did, and now the proof of it was finally here. Dawson brought the frame close to his heart and hugged it. He closed his eyes, and for just a moment, remembered his sister for who she was. To Dawson, she was a badass; a hero, but on top of that, she was also a loving sister. Someone who loved and cared for him. And he will always remember that.

Dawson put the framed picture in his jacket’s inside pocket. Luckily, he wore the type of jackets that have huge pockets; big enough to fit a whole picture frame in it. It was something he’d take home, and keep it as a memory of his sister.

“Oh god…” He mumbled to himself, as he wiped away the tear from his eyes. He started going through the drawers on the dresser, to see if there are any more good memories of her. First few ones were just fresh pairs of clothing, and while it was something that was unique and belonged to her, he thought he couldn’t steal that from his sister.

Until he reached the last one, which in the two piles of ironed shirts, there was a tucked away sub-machine gun. Salma’s platinum-plated T3K Urban, to be precise. Dawson was aware of the story behind this gun. It belonged to one of the Vice King members that was a hustler. Salma was hired to kill him for a large amount of money and when it was done, she took his gun as a reward. It was his sister’s trophy, something she was proud of. Something she would want Dawson to have it. It took him a moment to decide if he’ll take it or not, but he decided he will. Salma would want him to carry out her legacy. She was always proud of him.

He stuffed the platinum-plated SMG next to the framed picture in his pocket. It was a very spacious pocket, designed by Ultor for Third Street members, nonetheless.

Dawson checked his clock to see it was 11:58 AM. ‘ _Shit_ …’ He thought to himself as he rushed out and headed towards the meeting room. Everyone was already there, waiting for it to start. He sat down near the edge of the table, to be close to Ryan if he needed any help. Right next to him sat Viola. She arrived quite early in the morning and was reading the latest issue of a fashion magazine to keep herself entertained while waiting.

“How are you doing, Viola?” Dawson turned to her with a purpose to keep himself occupied with a small talk while he’s waiting “How was the trip?”

“Yeah, it was alright.” She put down the magazine. “I didn’t expect to be called here so early after our departure.” Viola was left in charge of the Steelport division of the Third Street Saints, she still hasn’t gotten a chance to do anything big.

“Nice, nice…”

“Do these meetings usually take long? What do they talk about on them?” Viola was curious, she interrupted him before he could say anything smart.

“Depends, really. Boss-man said we’re going to talk about some changes to the gang. So, I assume like, an hour… Maybe two?” Dawson replied to her.

Just at that moment, Ryan walked into the conference room. “I see everyone is here and ready to start?” A small sign of agreement was heard from the crowd of eight people.

“On question, Boss…” Shaundi interrupted “Why is Birk here? He isn’t even a real member.”

“Don’t worry, Shaundi. He has a place in this plan too.” Ryan replied with a confident tone in his voice.

“Yeah, I really hope you got this shit figured out.”

Ryan plugged in a USB thumb drive into a laptop on the conference table and typed in the password to log into the computer. However, once he was at the desktop, he was unable to find a presentation. The computer just didn’t see the USB, so Ryan did the first rational thing every person does when they run into a problem like this and refreshed his desktop. He kept doing this, repeatedly, despite not actually doing it anything.

“Damn machines…” Ryan grunted to himself as he continued refreshing the desktop.

“You need help, Boss-man?” Dawson, who majored in electrical engineer, was very handy when it came to the usage of the computers.

“It doesn’t open.”

“Lemme take a look.” Dawson pulled himself in the chair to the front of the laptop. He started doing his thing. He pulled out the thumb drive and put it in again, then proceed to open the file of it. What was wrong with the USB is that it wasn’t put into the slot all the way in and couldn’t maintain a proper connection. “Uhh… The drive is empty. “

“What? How is that possible?” Ryan questioned it.

“I dunno, but you’ll gotta deliver it dry to us.”

“Right.” Most of the times, Ryan didn’t understand what Dawson was telling him. Dawson always treated him as a friend, and therefore spoke to him as one, never minding that Ryan isn’t updated on all the street talk as much as he’d like to admit. He would usually pretend he understands what Dawson just told him and continue off with something else. “I’ll just start then without a presentation.”

Dawson rolled on his chair back next to Viola, before tuning in and listening to Ryan’s speech.

“So… I’ll have to wing this a bit, so bear with me for a second…” Ryan said with a calm tone in his voice “But after our little battle in Steelport these past few months, I have came to a decision. The Third Street Saints will be disbanded.” Ryan waited for a second, giving people a proper time to react to it.

“This is your master plan!?” Shaundi asked angrily.

“Wait, what does this mean to our brand?” Pierce was concerned. It was the thing he was most passionate about in years.

“What about my ring? And the Steelport division?” Viola argued.

“Calm down, guys. I’ll explain anything.” Ryan confronted the crowd; they weren’t taking this lightly. “Back in 2006, when Julius first founded this gang its goal wasn’t for it to become these drugged-up celebrities. We were meant to save this city from crime. I was assigned as an undercover cop” Ryan would mention this a lot. Even though he started as a betrayer, he thought it was important to the context of why he is still with the Saints. He never directly said it, but he considers them to be a family. “Now, in my time as being on both sides of this street war, I came back to the Saints because I realized something… Cops are useless.” Ryan’s sentence was interrupted by the gang’s cheers. They would always do this whenever he said why he left the force. He gestured them to stop with it. “Now, I think it’s time to go back to my roots. Third Street Saints will be transformed into a police force.”

The announcement was met with shock, people weren’t happy with it, there was some mumbling and protest, but also hard to make out with everyone talking at the same time. The only one who wasn’t really yelling was Angel, he was calm.

“What about our brand?!” Pierce said.

“What about me being a fugitive?” Kinzie replied.

“So, wait, cops can’t get the job done but us being cops can? What the hell?” Shaundi argued to the Boss.

“Man, this would’ve been a lot easier to explain with a presentation…” The Leader of the Third Street Saints said to himself, right before he started to address the crowd with his normal speaking voice “Calm down, guys. I got Ultor to make some calls, write some checks to the right people. And they gave us permission to start our own squad force.” There was no pause between Ryan’s sentences, he had to talk quickly before anyone had a chance to interrupt him. “All our former crime records are wiped. We get special training, and equipment straight from Ultor, and we require no warrant or any of that slowing shit.” Ryan paused for a second.

“But how does that even work?” Shaundi replied, but before he could say anything to her, Kinzie interrupted.

“Well, Boss would need some kind of an official to approve it, but even then that technically goes against some state laws, if not federal law.” Said the ginger hacker.

“Ultor got the governor to sign on and give us his full support.” Ryan added on top of Kinzie’s explanation, and then turned towards the brunette “Shaundi, I promise you, as soon we’re done here, we can place every resource into hunting down Killbane. I can organize this, but I need your passion for it to work.”

She paused for a second to think before saying her answer “Fine, you have my support.”

Ryan paused for a second, as a smile on his face was forming “Perfect, everyone else? Angel, I know I betrayed you but not going after Killbane and want to make it up to you right now. And Viola, I know you want to go after him too for killing your sister.”

The two shared a look between each other, and after a few short seconds, looked back at Ryan and nodded. They were in. Angel thought a bit about the mentioning of the betrayal, he had second thoughts of coming here himself, but he wasn’t the type that leaves a job unfinished; even though he almost died in Steelport trying to catch him. Viola, on the other hand, still had a bit of emptiness that was inside of her, she could see a way she could be at peace without avenging her sister, which is why she agreed to join; even if it meant she’d have to leave the prostitution behind.

“Perfect. What about you two? Kinzie, Dawson? We need capable men-and-women-in-the-chair.” Ryan asked as he turned towards them.

“Well, I don’t have anywhere else to go, but I am still a fugitive, I don’t think governor’s immunity works in this case since I am wanted for the federal crime, after all.” Kinzie replied to Ryan’s question.

“Don’t worry, Kinzie. We got that covered. Just tell me if you’re in.”

“I don’t see why not. Yeah, I’m in.” The hacker replied with a monotone voice.

“Great, what about you Dawson?” He turned towards his former Boss’ younger brother. Ryan knew that the kid would always follow him. Despite the disagreement between Salma and Ryan, his relationship with Dawson has always been excellent.

“Sure, why not.” Dawson replied. He was always casual about the stuff he did. Will this eventually hurt Ryan’s attempts of running a task force, it’s unknown. But what is known, is that the kid is loyal to him.

Ryan smiled at the table full of people. Of course, he didn’t go around asking everyone, but the sudden silence in the room made him think that everyone was on board.

“Ya’know, you’ll need a cool name for all this.” Pierce added. “Leave the Third Street branding in the past.” The tactician always had a special touch when it came to marketing; and he was right.

“Oh, we’ll have it.” Suddenly, Ryan changed the tone of his voice to the more commanding “Our first training session will be on Monday at noon. Get comfy, and ready to sweat.”

And that’s how the S.A.I.N.T.S. were born…


End file.
